In addition to Trammel Fork Church, Bethlehem Church and Burton Memorial Church, Billy Graham also had a connection with the present Rocky Springs Baptist Church located on Cemetery Road.

There were actually three Ham preachers: Mordecai Sr. (1816-1899), his son, Tobias (1847-1935), and his son, Mordecai Jr. (1877-1961). When Tobias died in 1935, his son preached his funeral. Mordecai Sr. and Tobias were both pastors at Rocky Springs Church; however, Mordecai Jr. was never the pastor there but he did get married there. In 1901, he married Bess Simmons in the present church sanctuary. Unlike his father and grandfather, he preached revivals all over the United States and Canada.

In 1934, he was preaching a revival in Charlotte, N.C., and a 17-year-old boy named Billy Graham was converted. Mordecai Jr. had a sister named Lucy and she married C.A. Smith, who owned the Elm Grove Dairy. Upon their death, their children, Mary and Luther, willed this property to the Billy Graham Evangelist Association. Mordecai Jr. died Nov. 9, 1961, and he was embalmed by an 18-year-old student from the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science in Louisville. Jerry Patton was that student, and today, Patton has funeral homes in Brownsville and Park City. Mordecai Jr. was 84 years old when he died and he is buried in the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.

Billy Graham preached his funeral.

Edward Grimes

Bowling Green